Warming Affecting Species Around the World

Effects of Climate Warming Already in Evidence

Environmental News Service,

March 29, 2002

WASHINGTON, DC, March 29, 2002 (ENS) - Ecosystems around the globe are
showing the effects of climate warming. Earlier arrival of migrant birds,
earlier appearance of butterflies, earlier spawning in amphibians, earlier
flowering of plants - spring has been coming sooner every year since the 1960s,
researchers reported Wednesday.

The report from German scientists investigates all regions of the globe. They
predict some species will vanish because they cannot expand into new areas when
their native climate heats up.

"Although we are only at an early stage in the projected trends of global
warming, ecological responses to recent climate change are already clearly
visible," write Gian-Reto Walther of the University of Hanover, Germany, and
colleagues in this week's issue of the journal "Nature."

After reviewing changes in various animal and plant populations over the past
30 years of warming at the end of the 20th century, the authors found "a
coherent pattern of ecological change across systems" from the poles to the
equatorial seas.

"There is now ample evidence that these recent climatic changes have affected
a broad range of organisms with diverse geographical distributions," Walther and
his team report.

"The implications of such large scale, consistent responses to relatively low
average rates of climate change are large," the researchers warn, adding that,
"the projected warming for the coming decades raises even more concern about its
ecological and socio-economic consequences."

The Earth's climate has warmed by about 0.6 degrees Celsius over the past 100
years, the researchers note. Starting around 1976, the rate of global warming
more than doubled, changing faster than at any other time during the last 1,000
years.

However, average global climate has far less effect on local ecosystems than
do local and regional climate changes.

The reproduction of amphibians and reptiles is disrupted by changes in
temperature and humidity. In painted turtles, the ration of male to female
offspring is related to the mean July temperature, said Walther, and the
production of male offspring could be compromised even by modest temperature
increases.

In the polar regions, winter freezes are now occurring later and ending
earlier, leading to a 10 percent decrease in snow and ice cover since the late
1960s.

These dramatic local changes are having equally dramatic effects on cold
weather species such as penguins, seals and polar bears, the researchers found.

Miniscule Southern Ocean crustaceans called krill, a key food source for
higher predators such as penguins and other seabirds, whales, seals, as well as
a fishery target, are being influenced by climate change. Walther's team found
the warming climate is affecting the reproductive grounds of krill by reducing
the area of sea ice formed near the Antarctic Peninsula, which leads to both
food web and human economic consequences.

Rapid environmental warming has been reported over the last 30 to 50 years at
a number of stations in the Antarctic, particularly in the Antarctic Peninsula
region and on sub-Antarctic islands, along with changes in precipitation
patterns.

Likewise, tropical oceans have increased in temperature by up to eight
degrees Celsius over the past 100 years, the research team has found, triggering
widespread coral bleaching.

Climate linked invasions of warm weather species into traditionally colder
areas includes the immigration of unwanted neighbors - epidemic diseases. "There
is much evidence that a steady rise in annual temperatures has been associated
with expanding mosquito borne diseases in the highlands of Asia, East Africa and
Latin America," the study says.

Geographical differences are evident for both plants and birds, with delayed
rather than earlier onset of spring phases in southeastern Europe, incuding
later bird arrival in the Slovak Republic, and a later start f the growing
season in the Balkan region, the team has found.

Later onset of autumn changes were recorded, too, but these shifts are less
pronounced and show a more variable pattern. In Europe, for example, the length
of the growing season has increased in some areas by up to 3.6 days per decade
over the past 50 years.

Overall, Walther's team reports, "trends of range changes show remarkable
internal consistency between studies relating to glaciers, plant and insect
ranges and shifting isotherms," which are lines of constant temperature.

The study concludes that based on the evidence "only 30 years of warmer
temperatures at the end of the 20th century have affected the phenology [timing
of seasonal activities] of organisms, the range and distribution of species, and
the composition and dynamics of communities."

Global warming hits species all over world

Reuters News Service, March 28, 2002

LONDON - From dying coral reefs to later autumns and endangered male painted
turtles, global warming has started to affect plant and animal life across the
planet, scientists said yesterday.

The world's mean temperature increased by around 0.6 degrees Celsius in the
20th century - most of the rise came in the last 30 years - and its impact is
already being felt by flora and fauna from the equator to the poles.

Some species are doomed as they battle ever-rising temperatures in an
increasingly crowded planet that offers fewer escape routes, according to
scientists writing in the journal Nature.

"Temperature has increased by no more than 0.6 degrees and already the signs
are very obvious," said geobotanist Gian-Reto Walther from the University of
Hanover in Germany, who collated the research from across the branches of the
natural sciences.

The study's conclusions highlight the seriousness of global climate change by
showing parallel trends in plants, birds, animals and fish.

"This is a major concern," Walther told Reuters, adding extinction for some
species was inevitable.

"The big difference between now and previous periods of climate change, like
the Ice Age, is that seven billion people live on earth now and many migration
corridors for species are blocked," Walther said.

One of the most dramatic barometers of climate change has been the world's
coral reefs, which have been devastated by 'coral bleaching' - a direct result
of warmer ocean water.

In the worst case of mass bleaching, in 1998, an estimated 16 percent of the
world's reef-building coral died, Nature said.

Meanwhile in Europe, trees are starting to show their autumn colour between
0.3 and 1.6 days later per decade, while some migrating birds are changing their
travel plans.

Walther welcomed governments' gradual waking-up to the problems of climate
change, widely recognised as the result of so-called greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide, but said nobody had a clue where it would all end.

"It is good they are now talking about measures to try and keep at a certain
level of emissions. Maybe this can slow the warming process, but so far there is
no measurement of how it is slowing," Walther said.

Britain's Meteorological Office predicts global temperatures will rise
between 1.4 degrees Celsius and nearly six degrees over the next century,
depending on the success of greenhouse gas policies.

Even at the lower end of these estimates, the outlook is bleak for the male
painted turtle.

"In painted turtles, offspring sex ratio is highly correlated with mean July
temperature, and the production of male offspring would be potentially
compromised even by modest (two to four degrees) temperature increases," Nature
said.